


Latte Doodles

by aislingdoheanta



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Flirting, First Dates, First Meetings, Gen, Happy Ending, M/M, Miscommunication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 05:31:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5079667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aislingdoheanta/pseuds/aislingdoheanta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically a Coffee Shop AU where Jehan grows accustomed to his lattes coming with little doodles on the top and Courfeyrac doesn't know how to tell him that Grantaire's the one who's been doing them. Not as big of a deal as Courfeyrac's making it out to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Latte Doodles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flybbfly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flybbfly/gifts).



> This was written for flybbfly for the Les Mis Halloween Exchange. You asked for Courfeyrac and Jehan and I hope this delivers!

It wasn’t supposed to be this big of a deal. It was just a little thing, something that didn’t really matter.

It all started a few months ago when Jehan started coming into the café that Courfeyrac, and Grantaire, worked at. (It was also the café that his friend Musichetta owns, but that’s not as important of a detail. The fact that Grantaire also works there is a slightly more crucial detail.)

Jehan had walked in, his long hair slightly windblown but otherwise looking like an angel that just gently meandered down from heaven.

The first time Courfeyrac saw him he was in love. Or at least that’s what he told everyone and anyone who’d listen. Enough that Musichetta threatened to ban him to the back indefinitely. Courfeyrac obviously had to shut his mouth because if he was in back, he might never see the mysterious and beautiful man again.

It was the second time Courfeyrac saw him that he actually learned his name.

“Jehan,” the man said with a small smile after placing his order for a caramel soy latte. “J-E-H-A-N.”

“Thanks,” Courfeyrac said. “Wouldn’t want to misspell it. That’ll be right up.”

“Thanks.” Jehan’s smile was near blinding. Courfeyrac almost walked into Grantaire.

“Why don’t I take that,” he said as he snatched the cup from Courfeyrac’s hands. “What’s it supposed to be?”

“Caramel soy latte,” Courfeyrac said. “For the love of my life.”

“For Jehan?” Grantaire asked. “That’s his name?”

Courfeyrac smiled and nodded. “Yes.”

The thing with Courfeyrac was that he’d been living with Marius for far too long. That’s what he would blame this on. This ridiculous and intense attraction. (He will take comfort in the fact that he didn’t moon over the man for more than a few days before he learned his name. Marius went months not knowing Cosette’s name. And then a few months after that thinking her name was Ursula. They will never let him live that down. Neither does Cosette’s father, Valjean.)

“One caramel soy latte for the love of Courfeyrac’s life,” Grantaire said with a laugh.

“You’re an asshole,” Courfeyrac complained but took the cup back to the counter.

If he hadn’t been so nervously excited to talk with Jehan again, he might have looked down at the cup Grantaire handed him. But he didn’t, so he didn’t notice that he’d drawn a sun in the foam until Jehan pointed it out.

“I’ve never had something doodled in my latte before,” Jehan said. “Thank you.”

“Yes,” Courfeyrac said.

“I guess I’ll see you around.

Honestly, Jehan’s small smile as he walked out, holding his coffee cup in both hands was distracting enough for Courfeyrac to completely forget the doodle-encounter entirely.

Until the next time it happened. (Which happened to be every time after that one.)

The next few times Jehan came in, Courfeyrac noticed something else about him. His eyes, his hair, his little pinky finger, the aura around him, the way he taps on the table while he’s writing. You know, little things. Things that are completely normal to learn about a near stranger.

And every time Grantaire doodled something in the foam of his latte. And every time Courfeyrac fails to tell him who’s really responsible.

But it wasn’t his fault.

It just never really came up.

Jehan would glance down and see whatever picture was there and somehow they would end up having a conversation around it. Sometimes it was a good conversation like the time Grantaire drew a feather and Jehan said it looked like a quill and admitted that he was a poet—though more for his own enjoyment than any real career. At least for the moment. As he had left that day Courfeyrac had asked Jehan if he’d maybe be able to read one of his poems sometime.

Jehan had smiled and said back, “Maybe I’ll write one for you.”

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Courfeyrac shot back.

Jehan grinned in return. “We’ll see.”

Courfeyrac was nothing if not smooth.

Except, of course, when he wasn’t.

There was the time that Grantaire drew a tiny Saturn and Courfeyrac had said that it was because Jehan was out of this world. (In his defense, it had sounded much cooler in his head. It wasn’t until later he realized that that was definitely a line Bossuet used on Joly. Or worse, Marius might have even used that.)

Jehan would thank him for the coffee every time, which Courfeyrac would wave off because it’s his job. And really, it was just coffee.

“And thanks for the doodle,” Jehan would always add.

Courfeyrac wouldn’t outright respond here. Sometimes he’d give a thumbs up or wave. Most of the time he’d just tilt his head and smile. Though one memorable time he did give Jehan finger guns back; a wink might have been included as extra. (Again, he thought of Marius. He should very possibly move out. Or spend some time with someone who didn’t flirt like a bad comedy skit.)

So see, technically he didn’t lie to Jehan. Besides, when was he going to bring it up? In the middle of their debate over which type of M&M is the best?

He’d tell him the next time it came up in conversation. He was determined.

 “You’re never going to bring it up,” Musichetta told him on day after passing Jehan his coffee with a simple crown drawn. Jehan had been talking about reading _Le Morte d'Arthur_ , which meant that Courfeyrac was now talking about it. (Of course Grantaire had already read it. Instead of being annoyed that one of his friends could possibly steal the love of his life away, Courfeyrac decided to use that to his advantage. He’d gotten a quick summary from Grantaire and now could carry a decent conversation about it with Jehan.)

“I will,” Courfeyrac argued. “When the time is right.”

“I’ve heard that one before,” Grantaire added.

“Yeah. ‘Cause that’s basically your catchphrase,” Courfeyrac shot back. “How is Enjolras these days?”

Grantaire just smirked at him. That’s another irritating thing about his friend—he didn’t get embarrassed. No matter how many times someone threw him under the bus in front of Enjolras or about Enjolras, Grantaire just didn’t seem bothered by it.

“Besides,” Courfeyrac went on. “It’s not that big of a deal. It’s not like I killed his cat or something. It’s just a minor miscommunication that I will rectify soon.”

When he’d said that he’d absolutely meant it.

“Sure you will,” Musichetta said in response.

Unfortunately for Courfeyrac, Musichetta happened to be right.

The next time Jehan came in he wasn’t as happy as he normally was. His eyes were not as bright and his smile was not as genuine as it normally was.

“Everything okay?” Courfeyrac asked when he came over to the counter.

“You know those days where everything just sort of goes wrong? Maybe not catastrophic, but just enough to sort of ruin your day? That’s the kind of day I’m having,” Jehan explained.

“I’m sorry,” Courfeyrac told him. “Anything I can do?”

Jehan smiled. “I’ll take my usual and maybe a happy doodle?”

Courfeyrac felt his smile freeze awkwardly on his face. “Sure. Not-a-prob.”

It was. It was a huge prob.

He spun around and saw Grantaire in the back and quickly walked over to him, holding the cup.

“Can you please draw something happy?” Courfeyrac asked, thankful once again that the customers couldn’t see back behind the counter as to who’s doing what.

“O…kay,” Grantaire said, snagging the cup from him. “For the boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Sorry. Love of your life then,” Grantaire corrected.

“Grantaire that’s—“ Whatever Courfeyrac started to say was completely wiped from his mind when he saw that Grantaire had drawn a smiley face in Jehan’s latte.

“I said something happy!” Courfeyrac complained.

“What’s happier than a smiley face?” Grantaire told him.

“But it’s not cool. It’s lame,” Courfeyrac said. “Besides I could have drawn that!”

“Yeah, but you didn’t. Besides, it’s got sunglasses on,” Grantaire told him like that was the end of the argument. “He’ll love it.”

Courfeyrac groaned as Grantaire laughed and took the cup back out to Jehan.

“One Caramel Soy Latte complete with a happy picture,” he said with a flourish as he passed the cup to Jehan.

Jehan looked down and laughed. “Smiley face, huh?”

“Well, what’s happier than a smiley face?” Courfeyrac said, parroting Grantaire’s words.

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Besides, it got you to laugh. So mission accomplished,” Courfeyrac told him. (If he could, he’d have given himself points for being so smooth.)

Jehan just smiled over the cup at him. “Well, thank you Courfeyrac. You’ve helped improve my day tremendously.”

“It’s what I’m here for.”

Jehan just shook his head but was smiling as he left.

Everything had been going so well until Jehan came back a few weeks later.

“Your usual?” Courfeyrac asked him as Jehan walked up to the counter. He always went to Courfeyrac if there was a line or more than one person on the cash register.

Jehan smiled and glanced down at the floor. “Yeah.”

“Okay. Coming right up!” Courfeyrac told him.

“Can you draw the cat doodle again? I really liked that one,” Jehan asked as Courfeyrac scribbled Jehan’s name on the cup. Biodegradable and recycled paper products that Enjolras insisted on. Well, he’d actually put together an entire proposal for Musichetta when he’d first started coming here years ago. But that’s a long story and something he shouldn’t be thinking about right now because Jehan just asked him to draw something.

Not something. A cat. As in a very similar cat that Grantaire drew for him a few weeks ago.

A drawing that Courfeyrac was going to have to try and recreate because Grantaire wasn’t here.

“Sure,” Courfeyrac said with a strange inflection.  

So Courfeyrac got to making Jehna’s latte while trying to google “how to draw a cat in latte foam.”

Unfortunately, google figured that Courfeyrac was a modern-day Michelangelo because there wasn’t a simple little cat. You know, like one a child might draw—not in milk foam, obviously. That wouldn’t be appropriate. Probably.

“Come on, Courf,” he said to himself. “You can do this. Simple shapes.”

He grabbed a toothpick because it was the closest thing to a pencil that they had and drew a circle—for the face. And two triangles for the ears. A strange rounded triangle for the nose with two J’s (one normal and one backwards). He added two ovals for the eyes.

He looked at the whole picture and realized it looked like garbage. It literally looked like a circle with three triangles drawn on top.

It also looked evil. Less devil’s spawn and more “I’ll be seeing you later in your nightmares.” Courfeyrac was going to blame the evilness on the fact that the picture was starting to melt weirdly and not his own drawing ability.

But Courfeyrac wasn’t going to panic. He would play it cool. He just put some whipped cream on top and covered up the drawing. No big deal.

“You covered up your doodle,” Jehan complained when he passed over the cup to him.

Now was the time to panic. But only slightly.

“Oh. Well, I thought you might like it,” Courfeyrac said.

“I like your doodles more,” Jehan said with a smile.

“That’s why I was so upset when Musichetta added cream on!”

“What?”

Something to know about Courfeyrac is that he is very smooth and normally on top of his game, except when he’s not. Then he crashes and burns and just continues to dig himself in deeper. He actually would give Marius and Bossuet a run for their money.

“What?” Courfeyrac asked in response.

“I thought you added the whipped cream,” Jehan said.

“I did,” Courfeyrac said.

“But you just said Musichetta did,” Jehan told him.

“Oh yeah, she did. Too.” Courfeyrac smiled a little. “It was a miscommunication and she thought it was her order and thought I didn’t put enough whipped cream on. So she added more. On top the whipped cream that I had already put on.”

“Really?” Jehan asked.

“Yeah,” Courfeyrac said.

And maybe this would have been the end of it, but someone felt like they had to add more.

“The whipped cream was an afterthought because Courfeyrac can’t draw,” Musichetta said.

Courfeyrac nearly had a heart attack.

“What?” Jehan asked.

“Grantaire, another guy who works here, has been doing little doodles for you and Courfeyrac has been taking the credit for them,” Musichetta explained. “He’s not here today, so Courf had to improvise. Though not before giving it a go.”

“You’re kidding,” Jehan said.

“Not at all. His cat was horrific,” Musichetta said with a grin. In that moment she reminded Courf of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland because the grin was terrifying and also incredibly unhelpful.

“Why go through all that trouble?” Jehan asked.

“Because he’s desperate to ask you out but has been fretting about telling you his dirty little secret,” Musichetta told him.

Jehan, much to Courfeyrac’s delight, laughed at that. “All you had to do was ask.”

“Wait. Really?” Courfeyrac said.

“Yeah,” Jehan said, shaking his head. “You think I would have only said yes because of the doodles? Or that I would have said no because you can’t draw? I’ve dated many people who can’t draw.”

Courfeyrac looked at him and then saw him smile. He felt his own matching grin. “You would want to maybe get some coffee sometime. With me? As like, a date?”

Jehan nodded. “Sure. What are you doing right now?”

“I’m working—“

“Actually, he’s just about to be given the rest of the day off,” Musichetta chimed in from beside Courfeyrac. He’d completely forgotten that she was there.

Courfeyrac wasn’t about to argue with her. He just ducked out from behind the counter, assuming that she’d take care of closing him out and everything because he had more important and perhaps life changing things about to happen.

“Where do you want to go?” Courfeyrac asked Jehan now that he was standing in front of him.

“There’s this really cute café close to here,” Jehan told him.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. And the baristas draw these cute little doodles, which is the main deciding factor for me when I look for places to drink my coffee,” Jehan said with a laugh.

Courfeyrac was a little embarrassed, but managed to get out a slightly dignified, “Lead the way.”

Jehan’s laugh trailed behind him as Courfeyrac followed him out of the café, but Courfeyrac couldn’t really be embarrassed about anything. He knew that he would make the same decision again because the end result was a date with Jehan. A little embarrassment was nothing when faced with that.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [tumblr!](http://saras-almanac.tumblr.com/)


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